Chapter 28 #3
The distant sound of an engine has me running even faster, since it seems to be coming from the direction of the motel.
I need a car to pass so I can hitchhike, but the only vehicle around is the one chugging behind me. I run as fast as my legs will take me, still using that adrenaline to keep me moving. But the stalker sure loves to speed.
He soon catches up, cutting me right off. The car skids across the road. I’m screwed.
Sonny. Caleb. Ellie. My unborn child.
I don’t need to see the world.
All of them are the world.
“At least we can rest knowing that your father won’t be going very far,” cackles the man. He clambers out of the driver’s side, his hand wrapping around my wrist like before. “What possessed you to run away? I thought you’d have liked to stay and watch the rest of the show.”
My tongue twists into knots, my brain totally scrambled. What am I supposed to say here, when he has a gun in one hand and me in the other?
“You might be keeping that mouth shut for now, but we both know that you’re fond of opening it.” The man narrows his one working eye down at me. “You can be a bit of a chatterbox at the coffee shop, can’t you? And that boyfriend of yours—you look like you don’t keep many secrets from each other.”
Clearly, he’s not paying close enough attention.
His grip tightens, and I’m thrown forward into his chest. We’re on the roadside, out in the open. In broad daylight. And he has a gun. That he’s about to use on me.
“I take it you no longer want to sell me?” The adrenaline has me acting all kinds of crazy. I don’t know why I just said that.
Another cackle from the stalker. “Your father really is a heartless motherfucker, isn’t he?
Selling you just to get himself out of the mess he created.
Alas, I’ve seen worse.” He throws me up against the Chevy, and I hit the bodywork with a metallic clang.
“Of course, it comes as no surprise that your father is thinking about money. But does he really think I have the time for that? My client has done some unspeakable things in his time, things that are way out of even my depth, but he still wouldn’t sell his own daughter if he had one. ”
“You know I’m innocent in all of this,” I say, trying to survive the force of my temple being crushed into the car. “You’ve been watching me long enough to know.”
“Yes. But witnesses love opening their mouths and saving the day.”
He presses the side of my head even harder into the car. I swear I’ll die from the pain of this alone. Give it another minute and I’ll have a deformed skull.
I feel a tear trickling down my face, the salty residue making it onto my tongue.
I spent so much time avoiding Caleb, stopping myself from sinking into that sweet place of surrender with him, that I didn’t fully appreciate the time we had together.
But I was right about one thing. Everything we had over the past month was temporary. Just not in the way that I thought it would be.
I’ll never get to see Caleb and Sonny interact, each knowing who they are to one another.
I’ll never get to see Sonny’s face light up when I tell him who his father is.
I’ll never get to pretend to avoid Caleb again.
Nor feel him inside of me.
His lips on mine.
I’ll never taste him again.
I’ll never see any of them again.
“I won’t say anything,” I promise. “You can hold it against me. I have a family, and they need me. You ever had one of those?” I’m hoping for that big villain realization, like in the movies where they pull away and fully understand their actions.
But this guy had no mercy on my father, and he definitely has no mercy on me.
He doesn’t think I’m capable of keeping a secret…
I hold my breath, not out of fear, but because I thought I heard blaring sirens. Maybe it’s just my delusional, dehydrated self speaking. But I definitely heard something.
There it is again, louder this time.
“Shit,” the man cusses under his breath as the sirens get closer.
The pain in my temple lessens. The stalker is no longer pressing me into the car.
I drop to the ground, exhausted from the pain, and see the guy take off into the forest. While that’s happening, a fire truck is coming to a shrieking halt next to the Chevy.
And Caleb is jumping out of it, scooping me up into his arms.
“Stay here,” he orders, shutting me up into the back of the truck.
He goes on a bounty hunt into the trees.
I watch him go after the man, but I can barely keep my eyes open.
Too much has happened in such a short space of time.
I’m pregnant with Caleb’s child again, my father tried to sell me, and I almost died today.
And, I finally came to the realization that I’m disgustingly in love with Caleb Rourke, and that denying my feelings was the worst thing I could have done.
I’m woken out of my daze by the slamming of the truck door as Caleb throws himself back in.
“Where did he go?”
“He won’t be going very far with two black eyes.” Caleb shows me a photo of him, taken before he punched the other eye. “This will be going straight to the police.”
He starts the engine, and we’re back on the road, driving to safety, just me and him.
I’m lost for words, completely. The only thing I manage to ask him is “How did you know where to find me?”
“I didn’t.” There are about five different muscles flexing in his jaw. “I searched high and low until I found you. I thought maybe you would have gone back to see your father, to check up on him.”
“I was at my old house.”
“What were you doing back there?”
I shrug. “I don’t know exactly. Closure? I hadn’t been back there for a while, and with news of the pregnancy and all, I thought it would clear some things up for me.”
“Clear what up exactly? You almost lost your life.”
“Going back there made me face some hard facts about myself.” I decide it’s best to speak the truth while I’m still in an adrenaline psychosis.
There’s no time to overthink. “Remember when we were up in the study, and I admitted to you that I get a sad feeling in my stomach every time I came back from a vacation?”
Caleb nods, eyes focused on the road out in front.
“I thought there was more to the world than this town, but the truth of the matter is that this place only felt empty because you stopped being in it. That’s why I’ve wanted to get out of here with Sonny for the longest time—to live my life. I thought that’s what it meant to leave this place.”
I see Caleb’s shoulder blades tense through his shirt.
“Of course, I was wrong. My life is here with Sonny, and with you and Ellie.” I hesitate for this next part.
“And I want to keep this baby, despite the ongoing complications with James Taylor.” I chew on my lip.
“I also want you there every step of the way, from the delivery room, all the way up until you’re on your death bed as a cranky old man. ”
He chuckles at that, but his face returns serious. “You better be there on my death bed.”
My heart fluctuates with so many good emotions. Oh my god.
“Although, I’d only be a cranky old man if I didn’t have my Hart around.”
His eyes are on me through the mirror, concentrating on my face more than the road.
“Where are the kids?”
“Grace has them for the day.” Concern lowers his brow. “We need to get you to the hospital.”
“I’m fine.”
“You were barely able to focus your eyes before when I lifted you up. You could have a head injury.”
“I’m perfectly fine. Seriously.”
His gaze flickers back up to me, but that concern hasn’t eased. “I’m not taking your word for it until you’ve been checked over.”
We whoosh past the welcoming sign for Maple Crossing.
And I’ve never felt more relieved to be back.